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Daily Rebecca

dishing up a little bit of everything

No Impact Man


A couple of weeks ago I was reading the Young House Love Blog and came across a post about minimizing the impact we have on the environment. They mentioned a documentary called No Impact Man, and I instantly knew I had to check it out. Turns out the film was available to watch instantly on Netflix (love when that happens!) so I watched it and LOVED it!

The film follows Colin Beavan as he “turns off the electricity, stops making garbage, gives up TV, taxis and take-out and becomes a walking, bicycling, composting, tree hugging, polar bear saving, local food eating citizen all while taking his baby daughter and caffeine loving, retail-obsessed, television-addicted wife along with him.”
You can check out the trailer here.
I have been trying to incorporate green methods into my day-to-day living so that I can do my share to preserve God’s Green Earth so that my kids and grandkids don’t live in a totally depleted and depressing world someday. I mean when you think about the amount of stuff that you use, waste, consume and throw away every day and multiply it by nearly 6 billion, it just starts to blow your mind. (or it does for me anyway)
So here I have been patting myself on the back for using cloth grocery bags and eating whole foods and the Beavan family gets FULLY COMMITTED for an entire year! Kinda puts my efforts into perspective. Now I’m not planning to give up toilet paper or electricity for any length of time, but this story inspired me. It made me realize that every little bit helps and that there is always more that I can do.
My next step is to make a list of the things in my life that I want to change so that I have some guidelines to help me on my way. I’m pretty sure I’ll include the changes I’ve already made (because I’m the type of person that will add “to do’s” — that I’ve already done — to my list just so that I can check them off and feel more accomplished :)
I’ve been totally into people’s personal stories, tips and even recipes that I find myself talking the hind leg off of every tree hugger I meet! So, have you made any lifestyle changes that benefit the planet? Do you have any consumerist habits that you’d love to break?

Another rant!

cosmetics-070126-1-full

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know that I can’t help but post about my new discoveries. I have another!

During the past few years that I’ve been aware of how our modern world is often hurting us more than helping us, I’ve been realizing that many of the everyday products I’m using contain all kinds of crazy ingredients. Heck, I guess it even stems back farther than a few years…I used to read the cereal box during breakfast when I was younger. I’d first check out the fun games or whatever was on the back of the box, but I’d always end up reading the nutrition facts and the ingredients on the side panel. At the time I remember wondering how they decided to add all the unpronounceable ingredients to regular old breakfast cereal. I mean the corn, sugar and oil type of stuff made sense to me, but the stuff like sodium lauryl sulfate and trisodium phosphate…how the heck did those get in there?! They are cleaning agents for crying out loud!
Anyway, enough about food…my feelings about what we’re eating could fill a book. This post is about cosmetics. My friend Jen posted the following video link on her Facebook page:
It’s definitely worth watching. We slather all kinds of personal care products on our bodies every day. I have been covering myself from head to toe in shampoo, hairspray, lotion, body spray, makeup, nail polish, etc. for years and years without thinking about what’s really in the stuff. The scary thing is that the things we put on our bodies end up in our blood stream! That gives me serious cause for concern.
The hard part for me is that I’m a self-proclaimed girly girl. I love to use a host of products to coif my hair into the perfect style, apply a face of makeup to feel a little bit glamorous from day to day, paint my fingers and toes a fun new hue and lotion and spray myself to leave a yummy scent in my wake. I really don’t want to have flat hair, a bare face and stinky armpits…it’s just not me!
So my challenge has been to find products that allow me to indulge my love of primping while supporting my ideals. I think it’s going to take some effort, but all good things come at a cost. This website is an incredible database that allows me to look up any product or category of products to find the risk rating. I was surprised to learn that my beloved Burt’s Bees carries products with a moderately hazardous rating…not every product, but some are worse for me than I thought!
On a local level, I have been introduced (by Jen again!) to Dirty Girl Farms. This is a local company that produces all-natural, chemical free products. The founder of the company can be spotted at a booth in the Royal Oak farmers market and she’s lovely! A true testament to the awesomeness of her products. So far I’ve only purchased the Calendula Deodorant (which has been successful in tackling my stinky pits!) but I plan to explore more of her line as I use up my old crap (waste not; want not) and venture into better products.
That’s all for now…stay tuned for more rants ;)

Trying to keep the worries away…

As much as I’m enjoying motherhood so far, it hasn’t come without some worries. Mainly I’m worried about the following:

1. Getting Grace on a schedule before I go back to work
2. Going back to work

I know there are bigger things to worry about and that God is big enough to help me figure out both of these things, but they worry me nevertheless.

I’m reading the famous Baby Wise book and it makes SO MUCH SENSE that I want to follow its principles. Babies on a good schedule are happy and feel safe and secure when they can anticipate the rhythms of their day. I know that Grace is only 3 weeks old (tomorrow marks 3 weeks; I can’t believe it!) and that as a “newborn” she has certain needs that don’t always follow the clock, but because I’m going to have to start working again in only 5 short weeks, I really need to be able to predict her naps and feedings.

Well, so far it’s going ok, but I just can’t seem to get her through the whole sleep/eat/awake cycle in the 2.5-3 hour timeframe :( I’m able to feed her at the appropriate times, but getting her to sleep at the right times is a challenge. It’s so painful to hear her cry, especially when I don’t know if she just needs to work it out or if she needs to be awake! Ugh. I really hope it all falls in place in the next few weeks.

Worry #2 comes and goes. I’m SOOO thankful to have a wonderful job and even more wonderful boss who is willing to work with me in this new phase of my life. I worry because I’ve always taken a lot of pride in my work and I would give so much of myself and my best energy to work. Now I have to divide my energy and attention between my precious baby girl and my great job. I need to join a support group of working moms or something…

For now, I try to just enjoy every moment, not worry too much about the schedule or going back to work and instead just trust God that He will take care of me. I’m so glad that I have Him to lean on.
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